Anyone have a guess as to what year the Advanced count will go to zero? Surely it will not be before 2050 at the very earliest...

Maybe. Anybody with an Advanced or Novice has been a ham at least 12 years. But if someone got that license at, say, 12 years of age, they could be with us a very long time.

There will probably be a few who will hold onto the license just because they can. Note that more than half of those who held Advanced in April 2000 are still Advanceds, but less than third of those who held Novice are still Novices.

True, but since the Tech Plus total has become superfluous, there is no reason I can think of to include it in your updates

Looks like Advanced and Novice totals will persist for some time. Can Novice licenses be renewed? I seem to remember only having a year or two to upgrade back in 1976 when I got mine (I was an Advanced before a year was up though)...

Can Novice licenses be renewed? I seem to remember only having a year or two to upgrade back in 1976 when I got mine (I was an Advanced before a year was up though)...

Your old Novice, and all since the mid 1970s, are renewable. Since the Novice hasn't been available to new issues since April 2000, the only way there could be any curren unexpired Novice licenses left is if they were renewed.

Here's the history:

When the Novice was created in 1951, it was good for just one year and could not be renewed. It was also one-to-a-customer - you couldn't get another Novice by taking the tests again. And you couldn't have a Novice if you'd ever held any class of amateur license.

In 1967, as part of the "incentive licensing" changes, the Novice term was doubled to 2 years, but all the other rules remained in place. The reason for this was that too many Novices were dropping out when their licenses expired.

In the early to mid 1970s the Novice license rules were changed again. First the one-to-a-customer/no retest rule waschanged. If a Novice license expired, the licensee could get another Novice by passing the tests again after 1 year off theair. That only lasted a short time before the 1 year wait was eliminated, and a Novice with an expired license could getanother one by retaking the tests. All through this time the Novice license term was 2 years.

Finally, in the mid 1970s the Novice became 5 years renewable, just like all the other license classes. When the license termwas doubled to 10 years in 1984, the Novice was included.

----

The original concept of the Novice license was that it was only meant as a sort of "learner's permit", not a regular license.Remember that before 1951 all US hams had to pass 13 wpm code (10 wpm before 1936) and the Class B/General written exam just to get started. The Novice concept back then was that it would be easier to learn both code and theory up to the General standard by actually doing, rather than study, study, study.

One of the effects of the Novice was a lowering of the age of typical newcomers. While there had always been young hams,(W3OVV passed Class B in 1948 at the age of nine), the Novice brought a lot more teenagers into the ranks of US hamdom.Of course the Novice license wasn't the only factor; the general prosperity of the period and the abundance of surplusand inexpensive kit and manufactured gear aimed at the Novice helped too. The peak of this development was, IMHO,the Heathkit HW-16.

I think what killed off the Novice was repeaters. When they became the Big New Thing in the 1970s, hams started bypassingthe Novice and going straight for Tech in order to access 2 meter and 440 repeaters. The easing of Tech written testingin 1987 and dropping of the Tech code test in 1991 sealed the deal.

Your old Novice, and all since the mid 1970s, are renewable. Since the Novice hasn't been available to new issues since April 2000, the only way there could be any current unexpired Novice licenses left is if they were renewed.

Here's the history:

When the Novice was created in 1951, it was good for just one year and could not be renewed. It was also one-to-a-customer - you couldn't get another Novice by taking the tests again. And you couldn't have a Novice if you'd ever held any class of amateur license.

In 1967, as part of the "incentive licensing" changes, the Novice term was doubled to 2 years, but all the other rules remained in place. The reason for this was that too many Novices were dropping out when their licenses expired.

In the early to mid 1970s the Novice license rules were changed again. First the one-to-a-customer/no retest rule waschanged. If a Novice license expired, the licensee could get another Novice by passing the tests again after 1 year off theair. That only lasted a short time before the 1 year wait was eliminated, and a Novice with an expired license could getanother one by retaking the tests. All through this time the Novice license term was 2 years.

Finally, in the mid 1970s the Novice became 5 years renewable, just like all the other license classes. When the license termwas doubled to 10 years in 1984, the Novice was included.

Thanks for sharing the history Jim. I had the impression that my Novice (Fall 1976) was not renewable, but maybe it was just that the material I used to review for the Novice, General, and Advanced exams at the time were out of date... I was one of the last hams to receive an 'N' call for Novice -- a month after I received my 'N' call I received a letter and new license in the mail from the FCC making me a WB9. I think that was late October 1976, but I am just guessing... By the end of Spring 1977 I was an Advanced and I had thought one of my incentives to upgrade -- other than getting phone privileges and more frequency spectrum -- was that the Novice license was a temporary license... I guess the adage is true -- memory is the first thing to go LOL

imo, the Novice being a temporary 'learner's permit' type license was a solid idea -- I don't find making it a renewable license resonant at all. I guess that and doing away with the code requirement is all water under the bridge at this point.

This isn't right. The renewable Novice came after you got yours in 1976. Your Novice was only good for 2 years, but if you didn't upgrade before it ran out you could pass the tests again and get another.

It certainly made for a more-uniform system. Every license had the same term, so they didn't need conditional logic to first read the license class and then make a decision.

Current computer hardware and software technology would consider that an insignificant complexity. But maybe it made a difference for them back then, at least for the computer systems they were using.

From what I recall from those days, the FCC "computerized" about 1964, then went quite a while before upgrading/replacing. I suspect that at least some rules changes and refusal of rules changes (such as vanity calls) were the result of the limits of the computer system.

Because licenses are legal records, there are probably security and other requirements which we don't know about.

Thanks for the correction, Jim. I seem to remember knowing that my Novice would expire in two years was definite extra motivation to study and upgrade beyond the other motivation of obtaining access to more frequency as well as voice privileges. It was such good motivation that I upgraded to Advanced in about 6 months.

With the issue of my call the '9' district was not far away from running out of 'WB9' calls and moved into 'WD9' shortly thereafter. The '6' district at that time had to already be into the 'D's... maybe that old computer system might have had trouble knowing whether a 'N' upgrade should be an 'A,' a 'B,' or a 'D' (?) Although they got by thru the mid-70's okay...

conjecture mode: Maybe an 'N' transgressed the rules and someone mistakenly blamed WB6 instead of the potential WD6... and the WB6 sued

When the FCC came out with the Tech (C) license (it was actually a conditional license with the test given by a single Generalclass holder) in the 50's and you held an unexpired Novice license and it hadn't expired, it ran concurrent to the Tech. So you actually held 2 calls signs, the Wn#xxx and the W#xxx issued to the Tech license. Once the Novice license expired you could not use the privileges associated with it. I am realy interested in knowing when the Novice be came renewable cause I too had one expire in 75 or 76. I also wonder if they did a grace period on those too. ??

When the FCC came out with the Tech (C) license (it was actually a conditional license with the test given by a single Generalclass holder) in the 50's and you held an unexpired Novice license and it hadn't expired, it ran concurrent to the Tech. So you actually held 2 calls signs, the Wn#xxx and the W#xxx issued to the Tech license. Once the Novice license expired you could not use the privileges associated with it.

There were periods when you could hold both licenses and periods when you could not. I'm not sure of the dates, though.

When the Novice and Technician were created in 1951, their exams were given at FCC exam points, same as the other licenses except Conditional. You could only get a Novice or Technician "by mail" if you met the Conditional criteria (125 miles "air line" from a quarterly exam point, or a shut-in for medical reasons).

In 1954 the FCC changed the rules and made all routine Novice and Techs "by mail". They also reduced the "Conditional distance" to 75 miles "air line".

I am realy interested in knowing when the Novice be came renewable cause I too had one expire in 75 or 76. I also wonder if they did a grace period on those too. ??

The Novice became a 5 year renewable license on May 15, 1978. The way it worked was that if a Novice license was still current on May 15, 1978, it could be renewed same as other licenses. See QST for May, 1978, page 46-47.

The HR-10/DX-60 were first, of course. But the HW-16 was a better Novice station. Here's why:

1) The receiver section of the HW-16 is better on CW than the HR-10. Better selectivity, slower tuning rate, better stability. 2) The HW-16 includes a complete TR system and has QSK. The HR-10/DX-60 requires an external relay or switch.3) The HW-16 cost $99.95 while the HR-10 and DX-60 cost $79.95 each - without a TR system. Almost twice as much! May not seem like much now, but back in the 1960s it was a lot of money.

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